RECOMMENDATIONS!

Monday, January 31, 2011

Noted Southwestern cooking experts Abraham Merchant and Richard Cohn promulgated this restaurant in the bottom of World Financial Center. It's like all the restaurants in the building - good in the pictures, but sorta brash and lacking charm in person. When it's busy at lunch, it's pretty tiring. I should know - I went twice, on successive days, plus for a beer on a third. All with colleagues, so no pictures.

The entrance is supposed to be a feature - there's a long water wall, and it's faced by a curved wall decorated from floor to ceiling with planters of dried wheat. This could be nice, but it's also narrow and low-ceilinged, and the overall effect is tunnel-y and claustrophibinous. Then inside is a tiled and southwestern, which is good for amplifying the noise. You know though, I had noise problems practically everywhere I went. The level of bustle is different between Tokyo and New York, and I'm too used to the quiet.

The food is there to appeal to everyone - for lunch the first day, my colleague Heiny had a quesadilla (pronounced 'kwee-za-dilla') while I went with that noted southwestern favorite, cajun grilled salmon salad. It wasn't un-enjoyable, to tell you the truth - big and sweet are the adjectives I remember. The sweet was from the salad dressing on the copious quantitudes of baby greens, and that level of roughage is always welcome. You could equally get some southwestern pasta, or a pulled pork sandwich... or corncakes with mushroom veggie burgers like I got on the second day. They were big...and sweet.